Digital BW, The Print

Frank , I'll throw in my 2cents here. I own a 3000 Piezo system and A 7000 
That I just started printing with, Loaded with MIS hextones(thier standard 6 
tone balck and white ink set)
In my opinion all piezo prints are equal 1160, 3000, 1200. 7000 as far as 
quality of the print. The only differance is the paper handling and size it 
can produce. My 3000 has been a wonderful workhorse for over two years 
producing quadtone prints only on Rag papers. Recently A batch of 15 16x20's 
made with the piezo driver on Royal Plush seemed A OK even though the new 
piezo 3000 driver  It took 1.20hrs to produce each print. I went to mat these 
prints and 1/3 of them were 15inch at the top and 14 7/8 in width at the 
bottom. This pissed me off so much I bought the 7000. A machine that can do 
it all and more. Large ink tanks, brilliant paper handling(any thickness) 
reliable etc. Time is money and I hope this well save me alot in the long 
run. My poor 3000? I just worked it to death, but I'am still using it, and 
its still truckin as long as I stay with paper 250gsm or under.
7000 vs. 3000/
So far the 3000 piezo prints beat the 7000 Epson driver prints. But not by 
much. I do see dots in the 7000 prints but its pretty damm good using the 
Epson driver with out any adjustments. It wouldn't take much to get waht ever 
you want out of the 7000. I'am just testing a few non-piezo methods to see if 
I can get by without the Piezo Driver. For me The piezo driver might have the 
advantage as I'am not that skilled in curve adjustments, and I like working 
with greyscal files vs. RGB, And I like everything clean and consistant from 
paper to paper. 
I hope there are other 7000 users here who will post there opinions. 
I'am Using the Carl Corey Workflow  Epson 7000 From the MIS Website. Anybody 
familiar with this one?
The only problem is my shadows are a little blocked up and coarse looking. I 
want what piezo can do! Great tonal transitions and dotless images.
The 6 inks of the 7000 seem to make whatever its dot size is, almost null and 
void....
Steve M.

In a message dated 08/09/2001 11:57:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
frank@... writes:

<< Incidently, I just bought an 1160 and have not set it up yet for Piezo, 
 but I was disappointed to hear that you think the 3000 is superior. I 
 thought I was buying "state of the art" for Piezo work.  The 3000 must 
 have the longest production run of any Epson printer.
 
 Frank
 http://www.culturalvsions.com >>